Passing Through
by danAlwyn
Summary: Hikari and Takeru's final journey together. Just something I thought up and turned out sort of well.


Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or any of its assorted characters.

Author's Note:  I really don't know why I'm writing this.  I was trying to get a feel about the end of the Redemption War, something that has nothing to do with Digimon, but this just sort of jumped into my head.  I'm really not sure why, but I sort of like the way it turned out.  Reviews are always welcome.  Just remember, most of the events don't make sense.

Passing Through 

Takeru Takaishi, lately of Odaiba, Japan sighed and brushed back his blonde hair in embarrassment, something that only increased the ruffled look he had, and the faint aura of puzzlement and disappointment he still wore around him like a collar in spite of the wonders around them.

            "I guess I should have been watching that turn more closely." He did sound sincerely sorry, and his continuing guilt over the matter was beginning to upset his companion.

            Hikari Kamiya, slightly put out at the faint expressions of guilt and embarrassment that whisked over Takeru's face like shooting stars sighed again and shook out her shoulder-length brown hair so that it sparkled in the variety of lights that shone down on them.  "We've been over this before, it wasn't your fault.  No one could have seen it coming."

            "I could have and I should have." Takeru turned his face away rebelliously, causing his companion to sigh at him in a mood that was as close to exasperation as she could get.

            "Well, there's nothing we can do about it now." She hugged her knees to her chest, and tilted her head back to the sky.  "What matters is what we do next."

            Takeru stood silent for a few moments before speaking, incredibly quiet, perhaps touched by the reverence around them, perhaps trying to control the waver in his voice.  "Well, the way I see it, there are two options.  We're in the Digiworld again, sucked through some portal…"

            "Unlikely." A little tear formed in Kari's eye as she spoke, but she brushed it away almost angrily, as if frustrated at her own weakness at this point.

            Takeru took a deep breath, postponing the moment of declaration, and then spoke as if he was the headsman, bringing down the gleaming axe on their own exposed necks.  "Or we're dead." 

            Above there was a crack of lightning from the caged energies held between the palms of the massive stone statue, the huge colossus that loomed above them, granite legs spread, marble cloak flowing backwards to meld in with the mountain behind him.  Both hands were extended from the ivory white sleeves, carved thin almost like ice, and between their cupped expanse a ball of energy, lightning wriggling like a can of worms, remained contained.  It made Takeru and Hikari shudder a little to look at it.  Fortunately the figure was almost completely obscured by the rising towers of tree trunks that loomed around it.  From where the two stood, watching sunlight from two different suns glow through the falling droplets of water on the steps of a marble fountain, the world was filled with green splendor.  It was also very empty.

            "Not popular this place anymore." The voice behind them made them both jump.  Hikari almost fell backwards, and Takeru balanced precariously on the slick steps for a few seconds before restoring himself.  As they jerked around they saw a man, long brown hair swept behind him in a single braid, standing there behind them.  One arm leaned casually on a wooden staff, and he was wearing an old-fashioned combination of white and gray shirt, pants and long flowing cape.  Two blue eyes stared piercingly through the two of them, evaluating and probing calmly, stripping illusion from truth in the depth of our souls.

            "Where is this?" Takeru asked after a moment.

            "Oh go on.  You were almost there already." The man settles back as if amused by their lines of thought.

            "Okay…" Takeru turned back to Hikari and exhaled, trying to get his line of thought back.  "The last thing I remember was the other car speeding toward us, and then there was a moment like we were on a roller coaster, and then we woke up in that grove over there."

            "Right.  Since when we've eaten a few pieces of fruit, we haven't had to go to the bathroom, and we aren't getting tired.  We're in a world with two suns that never set, and where time stands still."  Hikari looked around one last time, and inhaled a breath, speaking at the same time as Takeru.

            "We're dead."

            "Indeed." The man smiled genially at them, nodding at their use of logic.  "Few ever admit to this, as it is a sort of painful admission to make."

            "Well, we didn't exactly have an easy time of it ourselves." Hikari shot back tartly, a little offended by this man's superior and lofty attitude.  But that emotion faded as he looked at her and smiled.

            "True.  I stand rebuked.  But it took talent to end up here." The man gestured around, one hand taking in the vast forests and sun-filled meadows, the tall mountains and the statue standing above it all.

            "Where is this?" Takeru asked again.

            "This is the old paradise of Belasa."  When the two others looked at him blankly, the man laughed and continued.  "He was a little before your time, one of the old-time sun Gods.  He used this place as a reward where his priests could wander, or his adherents could escape to, sort of a pocket heaven of his own.  According to his legend when the faithful came here after they died they were to wander here for a time until they came to the base of that statue there.  Then they would be separated, the unworthy condemned to Hell below, the faithful ascending to heaven above.  Fairly standard stuff."

            "Why is it empty?" Hikari looked around.  "And why are we here?"

            "He was an old God.  When Gods get old, when their believers are converted or forget them, they come to these places, these empty upper realms to waste away.  From there they are re-absorbed into the Ultimate, the God on High, from which new forces of creation spin outward constantly.  Belasa however, was murdered."

            "How do you murder a God?" Hikari sounded aghast.

            The man's eyes grew distant.  "There are powers out there that descend from the Ultimate that surpass even the Gods.  It was from here, through the gate of damnation, that one of the greatest arms of the last assault on Heaven was launched, not that many years ago.  The Lords of Hell themselves came through the Gate and into this realm, where they prepared for their assault on the Gates of Judgment themselves.  Belasa would not permit their passing, and ignited the heavens against them, the reason the two suns never set.  In their retribution for the harm done their forces the Prince of Darkness Mephisto, one of the Seven, forced Belasa into the statue that represented him, and then unleashed forces that would destroy his realm.  In his last act, Belasa summoned all his strength and pitted himself against the energies that writhe still in his palms, and they struggle to this day."

            "So the Dark Ones won?" Takeru asked quietly, remembering his own past.

            "As they bound Belasa in that statue for all time, the Gate to Hell opened once more, and Mordred and Arthur, at last freed of their imprisonment in Hell, rose to battle once again.  There is no way to measure the depths of the evil represented by the forces massing for the assault on Heaven, the Demonlords themselves are beyond comprehension, and the Seven are mountains to their molehills.  But the Knights of the Circle rallied to their King, and even though there are few who can match even a single Demonlord, the power that lies in the Pendragon line is unmatched in all Creation.  Starting in this abandoned realm Mordred and Morgana fought across the planes, finally ending their battle before the Gates of Judgement, where the Redeemed threw down the Corruptor.  Arthur, High King, dueled Mephisto and Ahriman to a standstill, and the battle threatened to consume this half of Creation."

            "So the good guys won?" Hikari asked, impressed at the story.

            The man smiled.  "Nay.  You know, from your own lives, that the powers of Evil are never truly defeated, that they continue to rise again.  They were defeated for a time, and they retreated for a time, but they still struggle against the Circle of the Light, and will do so for all time."  As he finished he glanced upward to where the titanic struggle between the fallen God and the destructive energies he contained continued.

            "So why is it empty?" Takeru wanted to know.

            "Because, with their God ignoring them, the followers of Belasa drifted off to other pursuits and other occupations, and in time this became empty.  A desolate monument to the struggle between good and evil." The man finished softly, as if reliving something in his own past, and then shrugged.

            "Who are you?" Hikari asked.

            "Me?" The man seemed amused by the question.  "I'm Tyrian, that's what they call me at least.  You can too.  And you Hikari, and Takeru, I already know."

            "Do you still live here?" Takeru asked.

            "Me?" Tyrian seemed amused by this.  "I never lived here.  The planes around Heaven don't suit me."

            "Heaven?" Takeru's eyes jerked compulsively upward.

            "Oh yes.  You ended up in the outskirts, which is where the realms generally end.  So it makes sense that you're almost at Heaven."

            "So you don't live in Heaven, but you know all about it?" Hikari tried to resolve this in her mind.

            "Let's just say I'm passing through." Tyrian smiled, and pointed upward.  "You however are wanted in Heaven, at the Gates of Judgement to await judging.  I figured I would come and find you and take you up."

            Takeru's sudden suspicion must have shown, because Tyrian threw his head back and laughed.  "No, I'm not a demon.  Trust me."  And for some reason, both of them did.

            As they started walking, the trees and meadows passed like a swift wind, and soon they were walking under the forbidding visiage of the giant statue of the imprisoned Belasa, still combating the forces writhing between his hands in agony.  As the statue seemed to shrink in the distance, Tyrian turned around and raised a hand in salute, perhaps a recognition of bravery and courage, but the statue remained fixed.

            "Why doesn't somebody do something about him?" Takeru asked.

            "The struggle still continues.  Belasa was a good God, tolerant and lenient, but true to the Light in his heart.  If we freed him and banished that evil back to its source, it would only arise again somewhere, and Belasa would continue, forgotten, until the end of time.  Now, his existence has meaning and purpose.  The struggle defines him, and mirrors the battle between the Light and the Dark."

            Now they were climbing up stairs, huge golden glowing stairs, rising into the stars, surrounded by dancing bits of light that looked like fireflies and roaring like lions.  Zooming back and forth, the specks of light would come and play in their ears, ruffle their hair, and blow outwards into the darkening sky.  It was like they were steadily winding their way to the place the stars called home, a metaphor that Takeru suddenly realized was pretty accurate.

            "Passing through, eh?" Hikari tried to start a conversation with Tyrian, who was striding ahead of them, cloak billowing in an invisible wind.

            "Passing through." His voice had changed, was deeper, more resonant, echoing in the darkness and the dancing lights.  The change prevented any further conversation.

            Suddenly they were immersed in clouds, fluffy white ones that obscured all vision around them except for the stairs, which were now curling around in front of them.  Takeru was trying to peer through the clouds when he found the first marker, a huge ivory white pillar that blossomed out from the side of the clouds, gleaming in the sun that shined on it alone, wreathed in laurel and ivy, and bearing a single, golden inscription.  

            _Here, the mortal Imperial Battlemage Calmian Drake held the Hosts of Hell at bay for seven hours, at last surrendering both himself and his soul into oblivion.  Let his memory sustain this place always._

            Just as suddenly, there were monuments everywhere, passing by rapidly as they moved up the stairs, up the golden road, every monument a marker of some other fallen soul who had gotten lost on the way.  Some bore letters that Takeru and Hikari could barely read, some mentioned events that sounded vaguely familiar, some touched at memories of struggle and of Darkness and Light.  Tyrian walked on, ignoring them all, moving faster, causing the names to pass by in a blur.  But for Takeru one stood out alone as they passed by.

            _Here the Evil known as Lilith was confronted and defeated by the concerted efforts of the Masters of the Circle Alira Celu and Tyrian Valor._

            Whether or not Tyrian was the same, he swept by, and Takeru was left to wonder as they passed on upwards.

            And then they were out of the clouds, breaking free in a shower of golden sparks that temporarily blinded them.  And when their vision returned, they were confronted by the most awe inspiring site they had ever seen in their life.  Towering on the horizon, kilometers high, glowing in silver and gold interlaced with tints of ruby, emerald and sapphire, the purity and strength of the Gates of Judgment, the sacred entrance to Heaven itself, stood out.  Every bar on those gates radiated a fierce Light that nothing in the human's experiences could ever have matched, a purity that dissolved the little evils in their soul and changed the world around them for good.

            "The Gates." Tyrian whispered, and there was nothing the others could have said.

            Now the journey was moving even faster, as if they were standing still, and their surroundings were flying by at a tremendous speed, a solid blur.  But the Gates remained constant, dominating their vision, filling their minds with the promises of the dreams ahead, of paradise within.  Suddenly Takeru and Hikari were overcome with the sense of absolute bliss, of the most perfect feeling they ever had known, emanating from those massive edifices, and knew that it was merely a hint of what was lying within.

            But at the same time they noticed something else.  The stairs beneath them had turned into a golden road, passing right under the Gates, but to the side a darker path led off into what looked like a pit of blackness compared to the Gates themselves.

            "What's that?" Hikari asked, pointing.

            "That?" Tyrian sounded amused again, as if he had seen something none of the others had.  "That's the Gray Road."

            "What's the Gray Road?" Hikari pressed him.

            "Every once in a while Heaven gets souls that are not ready to accept the bounties of infinite paradise.  Souls who have done their time, who have risen to the heights of the Great Light are expected to enter Heaven, but some feel that it is not their time, and thus Heaven is not for them.  Many of them wish to be reincarnated again, but the Gray Path beckons to some few.  Souls who follow that Path enter the realms of Darkness in the service of the Circle of Light.  They are the hidden advisors, the guardian angels, the tools of the Light, sparingly applied and rarely used.  Since the souls who pass that way are limited they can only aid the living, not do their labor for them.  Yet a bit of advice, a few good deeds, a few stones in the right place can change the world."

            "So they volunteer for the Light by going that way?" Takeru wanted to know.

            "In a way.  They're the ones who serve as sprit advisors, or who give sudden inspiration.  Every soul who joins the war against Darkness gives the Light some advantage, but it is a Dark Path indeed, hence the name.  Those who walk it enter the darkest of realms, seek out the deepest of evils and help confront them, and are tempted by the greatest of fears.  There are many opportunities to fall off the righteous bridge into the unthinking depths, but some feel it is worth the risk."

            "Do you?" Hikari asked, but Tyrian refused to answer.

            And then there was another figure approaching them, a man, dressed in a plain pair of jeans and a white shirt that looked a bit battered.  He smiled at Takeru and Hikari, and then looked expectantly at Tyrian.

            "Here I leave you." Tyrian strode away before they could say anything, his gaze meeting the new stranger's visage for a moment, letting something incomprehensible pass between them, before he simply was not there anymore.

            "So here you are.  Takeru Takaishi and Hikari Kamiya.  Passed this way after many trials and travails.  Do you wish to say something before judgment?"  The man's gaze was welcoming, but both of them stayed silent.

            "So be it." Suddenly there was no hint of rumpled shirt and jeans in the stranger, his body erupted until it was as tall as a skyscraper, and yet at their height.  His eyes, previously nondescript, flamed a deep blue, and long golden hair fell around him to his waist.  From his back wings protruded, either golden or silver, maybe two, maybe twelve, maybe some number in between.  "I, the Archangel Michael, Captain-General of the Celestial Hosts of Heaven, on behalf of the powers granted to me by the Ultimate, do pass Judgment on these two souls.  I have found them guilty of the sins of mortality, too many to name."  The voice was now trumpeting, echoing so hard that, if Hikari or Takeru could have moved, they would have covered their ears with their hands.  "But I find their merits more moving than any defects they have brought into themselves.  They have saved two worlds, not once, not twice, but many times.  They have given of themselves selflessly, and in the face of grave danger, out of their own free will.  They have displayed the courage and abilities that few mortals ever rise to display, and they have drawn upon powers beyond mortal ken to preserve their worlds.  They have served, first as saviors, then as protectors, and as such are forever true to their Light.  The Judgment of Heaven is that these two be permitted to enter Heaven for all TIME!"

            At the last word the Gates parted, and Light, indescribably beautiful, showered forth in rainbows of silver and gold, twisting and turning and echoing until they were caught up in the pure rapture of existing in this divine locale.  For a single moment they were welcomed into the greatest wonder they had ever seen, a never-ending wondrous passage of adventure and glory waiting for them.  But then, something unfinished twitched in Takeru's heart, and the image of the stone God and the monument of gold imposed itself upon him.

            "I'm sorry." His voice, compared to the Divine Chorus, was very soft, but made itself heard.  "But…I don't think I'm ready for this yet.  I mean, maybe later, but there's a lot of Darkness out there that needs conquering and I…"

            Hikari said nothing, but the way she gripped his arm as his voice trailed off spoke his decision as loud as if she had screamed it out loud.

            Michael looked down on them, and his gaze was kind and smiling.  For a moment his eyes darted away to the Gray Path, and then back to them, and he grinned.  Behind him, regretfully, the beauty of the Divine Chorus faded into the background.

            "I see." He whispered, and his voice seemed to caress their ears.  "I see and I understand.  Know that I think you have made the right decision, and that I feel that you will gain much by walking the Gray Path."  The volume of his voice began to rise again.  "Know that wherever you walk on your journeys, through whatever Darkness you may be forced to endure, that the blessings of Heaven are with you, and that our Gates are open to you."  And then he was gone, and it was only the Gates, open and shining into infinity.

            Takeru forced himself to stand away, watching regretfully as the feeling of bliss fell away from him, but then he was recaptured by a feeling of purpose, a sense of self.  Lifting one hand in salute, with Hikari walking beside him, he left the Gates of Judgment behind and began to walk down the Gray Path until Heaven was only a memory, beautiful and painful, but behind him.

            As they continued down the path, they were suddenly confronted by a familiar figure, standing on the side of the road, leaning on a staff and waiting for them.

            "Though I would wait for you.  Show you around.  The usual." Tyrian smiled at them and gestured them onward as the Path moved on to infinity.

            "You knew." Takeru accused, but his heart was not in it.

            "I suspected, but it was your choice in the end.  You have to choose the way that lies in your heart, and only you know which way that is."  The mists sped by, and they felt like they were ascending from the lofty heights.

            "Got a job for you already.  Bunch of kids trapped in a burning orphanage, or will be in a few minutes.  Two of three of them will grow up to be real important in their time, so we want to save them.  Problem is, we don't know which ones, so you have to save them all, not that we have a problem with that.  So here's the deal, I drop you off outside the building, you run in and get the kids out.  Don't worry about smoke inhalation or burning or suchlike, because you're already dead, and you can't die twice.  Just get the kids out.  Okay, now specifics, it's a two story building, wooden, which means…

            "I knew we should have run faster." Taichi was complaining to Yamato.

            "You couldn't have known that the building was going to collapse Tai.  Don't worry about it." Yamato looked over his shoulder at the burning majesty of the Gates of Judgment.  "Now all we have to do is approach the Gates and see what they say.  At least we didn't end up at the other place, right?"

            There was a sudden touch on each of their shoulders, and the two of them looked at two faces they had not seen in quite a while.

            "Takeru!"

            "Yamato!"

            "Taichi!"

            "Hikari!"

            "So this is what happened after the car crash." Taichi was openly crying on the shoulder of the little sister he had buried so many years before.  "I've missed you so much."

            "So squirt." Yamato tried to bring back old times once more, but now his old cocky grin was framed with tears.  "Live here now, do you?"

            For some reason Hikari and Takeru burst into laughter, rising like a symphony of trumpets and horns until the stars that should have orbited overhead would have been dancing to the resonant tune.  After a moment while their siblings stared on, confused, Takeru brushed his eyes with his sleeve and smiled.

            "No big brother, not at all.  We're just passing through."


End file.
